HOME
Sosa City
The city Sosa is documented in Nara Todaiji Temple Sho-So-In to have supplied a special product to the Yocho Chotei in 741 AD.
According to historical document “Shoku-nihon-kouki”, the name Sosa, at the time pronounced “Safusa”, comes from a descendent of “Mononobe no Ogoto”, a leader of a powerful clan from the Kinki region in the early Heian era, (5th, 6th century) who conquered the Kanto Region and was awarded land in the area called “Safusagoori”, a portion of the “Shimofusa No Kuni “, which is the present day Sosa.
It is not determined how the name evolved to “Sosa” but there are various theories of the etymology of the name “Safusa”, the original name of the area. "Sa" is described as narrowness which translated as beautiful, "Fusa", is hemp, thus, "Land where beautiful hemp can be taken". Another theory states "Sa" as a prefix and added later, the name "Fusa" is from the largest counties in the 11 counties of the “Shimofusa No Kuni “. The Chinese characters for Sosa were considered to be fortunate and pronounced “Safusa”.
